I sit staring at my hands for the twentieth time while I try to summarize my experience on the Pacific Crest Trail. Each time I start reflecting and writing, my mind wanders off and gets lost in the other world that was my thru hike. Half of me doesn’t believe I ever really hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and the other half thinks I’ll wake up tomorrow and be back on the trail, chasing that mythical monument at the border.

I want to summarize the elation and sadness of finishing the thing I poured all of my self into for four and a half months, but I can’t.

I want to summarize the beauty in the world I saw, but I can’t.

I want to summarize the pain and loneliness I felt at times, but I can’t.

I want to summarize the compassion of strangers like I’d never experienced before, but I can’t.

I want to summarize the deprivation of so much I’d grown accustom to, but I can’t.

A magical little spot. Apparently, the locals like hikers since we’re a break from the usual Seattle yuppies that come here, but they do refer to us as “the aromatics.”

It was Strawberries birthday and we all ate cake from the Stehekin bakery in the afternoon. Blue Skies(pictured above) came in on a later bus and missed the initial cake eating. There was still some left, but it was put in the trash. A guy retrieved it and found it still in the box, so we thought it was still good. After taking a bite, the guy who retrieved the cake told blue Skies that he accidentally dropped it back in the trash while trying to pick it up and it collected some debris(bottle cap above).

Hmm…where did the trail go. I wasn’t ballsy enough to swing across with the rope and instead walked back up the trail and cut a switch back.

One of the guys I was hiking with nicknamed this section the “obstacle course.” There were tons of trees across the trail and lots of washouts. Above is an old growth tree that created a very large obstacle.

After a bridge washed out a few years ago the PCT was rerouted down through an old growth forest. This section has some of the most spectacular trees I’ve seen.